Method and apparatus for determining road line

Abstract

A road line determination method and apparatus is provided. The method includes: performing detection of two road lines of a lane in which the vehicle is driving from a driving image; determining whether at least one road line of the two road lines is not detected; if it is determined that the at least one road line is not detected, determining at least one road line for the at least one undetected road line based on first information about a drivable road area comprising the road; and controlling driving of the vehicle based on the at least one determined road line.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method of determining a road line of a road for a vehicle to drive along, the method comprising:
 performing detection of two road lines of a lane in which the vehicle is driving from a driving image; 
 determining whether at least one road line of the two road lines is not detected; 
 if it is determined that the at least one road line is not detected, determining at least one road line for the at least one undetected road line based on first information about a drivable area comprising the road; and 
 controlling driving of the vehicle based on the at least one determined road line, 
 wherein the first information comprises a map indicating probabilities that pixels in the driving image correspond to the drivable area. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first information is obtained by determining the drivable area and an undrivable area,
 wherein the drivable area further comprises an area which is not the road, and 
 wherein the at least one road line is determined to be included in the drivable area. 
 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein, if it is determined that one road line of the two road lines is detected and the other road line of the two road lines is not detected, the determining the at least one road line for the at least one undetected road line comprises:
 predicting the other road line based on the one road line; and 
 correcting the predicted road line based on the first information. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 3 , wherein the predicting the other road line comprises predicting a second line regression function corresponding to the other road line based on a first line regression function corresponding to the one road line, and
 wherein the correcting the other road line comprises correcting the second line regression function such that the other road line is included in the drivable area. 
 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein, if it is determined that the two road lines are not detected, the determining the at least one road line for the at least one undetected road line comprises:
 predicting one road line of the two road lines based on the first information; and 
 predicting the other road line of the two road lines corresponding to the one road line based on the predicted one road line. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 5 , wherein the predicting the one road line comprises:
 searching for a boundary of the drivable area from the first information; and 
 generating a first line regression function corresponding to the one road line based on the boundary. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 6 , wherein the searching comprises:
 searching for an undrivable area from the first information; and 
 searching for the boundary based on the undrivable area. 
 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein, if it is determined that the two road lines are not detected, the determining the at least one road line for the at least one undetected road line comprises:
 predicting one road line of the two road lines based on prestored information about a shape of the road; and 
 correcting the predicted road line based on the first information. 
 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8 , wherein the predicting the one road line comprises generating a first line regression function corresponding to the one road line based on the prestored information, and
 wherein the correcting the one road line comprises correcting the first line regression function such that the predicted road line is included in the drivable area. 
 
     
     
       10. An apparatus for determining a road line of a road for a vehicle to drive along, the apparatus comprising:
 a sensor configured to acquire a driving image; and 
 a processor configured to:
 perform detection of two road lines of a lane in which the vehicle is driving from the driving image; 
 determine whether at least one road line of the two road lines is not detected; 
 determine, if it is determined that the at least one road line is not detected, at least one road line for the at least one undetected road line based on first information about a drivable area; and 
 control driving of the vehicle based on the at least one determined road line, 
 
 wherein the first information comprises a map indicating probabilities that pixels in the driving image correspond to the drivable area. 
 
     
     
       11. The apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein the first information is obtained by determining the drivable area and an undrivable area,
 wherein the drivable area further comprises an area which is not the road, and 
 wherein the at least one road line is determined to be included in the drivable area. 
 
     
     
       12. The apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein, if it is determined that one road line of the two road lines is detected and the other road line of the two road lines is not detected, the processor is configured to predict the other road line based on the one road line, and correct the predicted road line based on the first information. 
     
     
       13. The apparatus of  claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to predict a second line regression function corresponding to the other road line based on a first line regression function corresponding to the one road line, and correct the second line regression function such that the other road line is included in the drivable area. 
     
     
       14. The apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein, if it is determined that the two road lines are not detected, the processor is configured to predict one road line of the two road lines based on the first information, and predict the other road line of the two road lines corresponding to the one road line based on the predicted one road line. 
     
     
       15. The apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein the processor is configured to search for a boundary of the drivable area from the first information, and generate a first line regression function corresponding to the one road line based on the boundary. 
     
     
       16. The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured to search for an undrivable area from the first information, and search for the boundary based on the undrivable area. 
     
     
       17. The apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein, if it is determined that the two road lines are not detected, the processor is configured to predict one road line of the two road lines based on prestored information about a shape of the road, and correct the predicted road line based on the first information. 
     
     
       18. The apparatus of  claim 17 , wherein the processor is configured to generate a first line regression function corresponding to the one road line based on the prestored information, and correct the first line regression function such that the predicted road line is included in the drivable area. 
     
     
       19. A method of controlling driving of a vehicle, the method comprising:
 determining whether at least one road line is not detected while the vehicle is being driven; 
 if it is determined that the at least one road line is not detected while the vehicle is being driven, predicting at least one road line for at least one undetected road line using at least one of information about a road obtained from a driving image captured by a sensor installed in the vehicle and prestored information about the road, and correcting the at least one predicted road line to be included in a drivable area; 
 determining the at least one corrected road line as the at least one undetected road line; and 
 controlling the driving of the vehicle based on the at least one determined road line, 
 wherein the drivable area is determined based on pixel values of the driving image. 
 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 19 , further comprising determining pixels of the driving image as the drivable area if a probability value of the pixels to be the drivable area is higher than a preset threshold.